560
Aristotle (History of Animals, Avium praecipuarum … Historia) and then, in 1544,
Doctor William Turner, who described over 130 species—could have imagined.
21
All such avifauna annals are lodged in a painfully unmediated purgatory between
the cage, pet stores, illegal animal markets, the aviary, the case of specimens, thousands of colorful pages in books, and actual living habitat. The fate of the Dodo in
our imaginations and, hence, likely ethical activism going forward, inextricably
involves what Roeland Savery saw, or did not see (live), but certainly, and repeatedly felt deeply compelled to paint. While he may not be the household name that
Lewis Carroll commands, Savery’s impact on the ecological aesthetics of zoology
has framed the narrative since the European Renaissance.
Consider Chapter II, Alice, neck-deep in her own “pool of tears,” suddenly confronted with a teeming confusion of birds caught out in that very maelstrom: “a
Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures”
22
(Fig. 59.4).
With the patronage of Rudolf’s impressive finance capacity, Renaissance painters had risen to ornithological prominence that would deliver the first imagery of
Dodos and their kindred to a contemporary audience and most assuredly to posterity. Savery’s equally prolific contemporary, Jan Brueghel the Elder’s “An Allegory
of Air” (c. 1611) certainly marked one of the great moments in the history of humanity’s love affair with birds. Brueghel’s fellow artists signaled their own equally passionate devotions, from Frans Snyders, Jan van Kessel the Elder, to Carl Wilhelm de
Hamilton and ultimately, in Roelandt Savery himself, who lives on in art history as
the unwitting champion of a bird that would become the poster child for all
extinctions.
23
21 See Turner On Birds: A Short And Succinct History Of The Principal Birds Noticed By Pliny And
Aristotle, First Published By Doctor William Turner, 1544, Edited With Introduction, Translation,
Notes, And Appendix, by A. H. Evans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1903. For
current revision, see George F. Barrowclough, Joel Cracraft, John Klicka, Robert M. Zink. How
Many Kinds of Birds Are There and Why Does It Matter? PLOS ONE, 2016; 11 (11): e0166307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166307; “New Study Doubles the Estimate of Bird
Species in the World,” American Museum of Natural History Press release, December 12, 2016,
https://www.amnh.org/about/press-center/new-study-doubles-the-estimate-of-bird-speciesin-the-world.
22 Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, With 42 Illustrations by John Tenniel,
Macmillan and Co.. Limited, 1898, p. 28. See the fascinating essay, “Establishing extinction
dates – the curious case of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the Red Hen Aphanapteryx bonasia,”
by Anthony S. Cheke, in Ibis, International Journal of Avian Science, 19 January 2006, https://doi.
org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.200600478.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi.org/10.1111/j.1474919X.200600478.x; See also, Return of the Crazy Bird – The Sad, Strange Tale Of The Dodo, by
Clara Pinto-Correia, who writes, “The dodo didn’t have a clue when it came to fleeing hungry
sailors who enjoyed feasting on its abundant meat. These sailors named it doudo, or crazy….
Copernicus Books, Springer Verlag New York, 2003. See also, Lost Land of the Dodo: An
Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues, by Anthony S. Cheke and Julian Pender
Hume, A&C Black, London 2008, https://books.google.com/books/about/Lost_Land_of_the_
Dodo.html?id=RUjCAwAAQBAJ, Accessed April 24, 2020.
23 For a superb general survey of great ornithological masterpieces, beginning with the Paleolithic,
and with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and concluding with a section devoted to the “The Modern Bird,”
selections by Paul Klee, Lucian Freud and others see The Bird in Art, by Caroline Buger, Merrell
Publishers, London/New York, 2012.
59 Savery’s Castle of Secrets
Aristotle (History of Animals, Avium praecipuarum … Historia) and then, in 1544,
Doctor William Turner, who described over 130 species—could have imagined.
21
All such avifauna annals are lodged in a painfully unmediated purgatory between
the cage, pet stores, illegal animal markets, the aviary, the case of specimens, thousands of colorful pages in books, and actual living habitat. The fate of the Dodo in
our imaginations and, hence, likely ethical activism going forward, inextricably
involves what Roeland Savery saw, or did not see (live), but certainly, and repeatedly felt deeply compelled to paint. While he may not be the household name that
Lewis Carroll commands, Savery’s impact on the ecological aesthetics of zoology
has framed the narrative since the European Renaissance.
Consider Chapter II, Alice, neck-deep in her own “pool of tears,” suddenly confronted with a teeming confusion of birds caught out in that very maelstrom: “a
Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures”
22
(Fig. 59.4).
With the patronage of Rudolf’s impressive finance capacity, Renaissance painters had risen to ornithological prominence that would deliver the first imagery of
Dodos and their kindred to a contemporary audience and most assuredly to posterity. Savery’s equally prolific contemporary, Jan Brueghel the Elder’s “An Allegory
of Air” (c. 1611) certainly marked one of the great moments in the history of humanity’s love affair with birds. Brueghel’s fellow artists signaled their own equally passionate devotions, from Frans Snyders, Jan van Kessel the Elder, to Carl Wilhelm de
Hamilton and ultimately, in Roelandt Savery himself, who lives on in art history as
the unwitting champion of a bird that would become the poster child for all
extinctions.
23
21 See Turner On Birds: A Short And Succinct History Of The Principal Birds Noticed By Pliny And
Aristotle, First Published By Doctor William Turner, 1544, Edited With Introduction, Translation,
Notes, And Appendix, by A. H. Evans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1903. For
current revision, see George F. Barrowclough, Joel Cracraft, John Klicka, Robert M. Zink. How
Many Kinds of Birds Are There and Why Does It Matter? PLOS ONE, 2016; 11 (11): e0166307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166307; “New Study Doubles the Estimate of Bird
Species in the World,” American Museum of Natural History Press release, December 12, 2016,
https://www.amnh.org/about/press-center/new-study-doubles-the-estimate-of-bird-speciesin-the-world.
22 Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, With 42 Illustrations by John Tenniel,
Macmillan and Co.. Limited, 1898, p. 28. See the fascinating essay, “Establishing extinction
dates – the curious case of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the Red Hen Aphanapteryx bonasia,”
by Anthony S. Cheke, in Ibis, International Journal of Avian Science, 19 January 2006, https://doi.
org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.200600478.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi.org/10.1111/j.1474919X.200600478.x; See also, Return of the Crazy Bird – The Sad, Strange Tale Of The Dodo, by
Clara Pinto-Correia, who writes, “The dodo didn’t have a clue when it came to fleeing hungry
sailors who enjoyed feasting on its abundant meat. These sailors named it doudo, or crazy….
Copernicus Books, Springer Verlag New York, 2003. See also, Lost Land of the Dodo: An
Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues, by Anthony S. Cheke and Julian Pender
Hume, A&C Black, London 2008, https://books.google.com/books/about/Lost_Land_of_the_
Dodo.html?id=RUjCAwAAQBAJ, Accessed April 24, 2020.
23 For a superb general survey of great ornithological masterpieces, beginning with the Paleolithic,
and with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and concluding with a section devoted to the “The Modern Bird,”
selections by Paul Klee, Lucian Freud and others see The Bird in Art, by Caroline Buger, Merrell
Publishers, London/New York, 2012.
59 Savery’s Castle of Secrets